Quotes From Tuesday's Press Conference

Maryland Athletics

11-5-2013

Head Coach Randy Edsall

Opening Statement:

“It is good to get back out to playing again this week, after having last week off. We got a chance to work on some things and get some guys back in the fold. We’ll see how the rest of the guys do this week with practice and we’ll see where we are with these injuries coming back. We’re playing a very hard nose and physical football team. We have to be ready to stop the running game on defense and handle their quarterback, Terrel Hunt, who is getting better at running the plays. They have an aggressive, attacking and blitzing defense that we’re going to go up against on Saturday. We need to make sure that we have a good week of preparing and understanding all of the things that we could see and will see. We have to make sure we go out and don’t turn the ball over, so we can give ourselves an opportunity to win and make sure that we can get some turnovers to help us win.”

On facing his alma mater:

“I have great feelings. I love the place. They gave me an opportunity to get my education and start my coaching career. I have very fond memories. I spent 15 years of my life playing and then coaching. I met my wife there and she got the better end of that deal. It’s always a place that will have a special place for me. All of the friends that I have from there are special. So, you just worry about what you’ve got to control in terms of getting ready to play the game this week. “

On the left tackle position with the departure of Mike Madaras:

“Moise [Larose] is at left tackle, [Ryan] Doyle is at right tackle, Jake Wheeler is the backup at left and Nick Klemm is the backup at right. I feel really good about it.

“Situations come up and you deal with him. Moise is the best guy to play that position for us, so he’s out there. I know that we’ll do a good job and he’s been working hard. He’ll give everything that he has and I’ve been impressed with him since he’s come in here. Sometimes people get pressed with things maybe a little bit quicker than they would like to, but that is part of the game. You’ve got to adapt and overcome those situations.”

On Syracuse:

“Watching them on tape, defensively they are very aggressive. They do a lot of blitzing and give you a lot of different looks. [Jay] Bromley has eight sacks. Their linebackers, Cameron Lynch,Marquis Spruill and Dyshawn Davis, are very active. Those guys run really well and the secondary is sound and solid. That’s the thing when you watch their defense. They put pressure on you and give you a lot of different looks. Offensively, they’ve made a change for the Wake Forest game and moved Ashton Broyld to the outside and brought in the young man, [Brisly Estime], to play in the slot. He caught some balls for them and had some good plays. They like to run the ball and a big thing that you’ve got to be able to do is stop the run. With their running backs, [Jerome] Smith and [Prince]-Tyson [Gulley], rushing for almost 200 yards a game. To add to that, I am extremely impressed with the videos I’ve been watching on Terrel Hunt.”

On earning their sixth win and gaining bowl eligibility:

“I told our kids. They know what they want to accomplish. They have the goals in mind of what we want to accomplish so they understand what’s there. I told them, we’re a 5-3 football team. Where we want to go is up to them. I thought we had some good practices last week and I thought Sunday they were focused. They know what’s on the line and now it’s up to them to go out and practice well this week and work to try to get the sixth win this week.”

On the health of quarterback C.J. Brown:

“He practiced last week, and hopefully barring any setback or anything this week, he’ll be good. As far as that, it’s the depth chart, that from a health stand point, it was there before as a health stand point, but now the doctors and the trainers and all them, watching him do the things, he was good. Now we just feel that’s the way it will turn out this week too.”

On place kicker Brad Craddock:

“Well, I think Brad is a great role model for everybody on our team. You see that he’s a semifinalist for the Lou Groza award this year. And you take a look at the year he had a year ago, and then to see the amount of work that he put into getting better and wanting to improve himself and never complaining or having a bad attitude, all he did was go out and work his tail off, was motivated and worked on his craft to put him in that position.”

Quarterback C.J. Brown

On if he feels 100 percent healthy:

“Yeah absolutely, I think those two weeks off definitely helped. I feel a lot better especially when I’m out in practice. Just being out there, being able to go full speed, the coaches saw I was kind of limited last week and wasn’t myself so to be able to take that time to recover that extra week definitely helped.”

On returning from injury:

“The biggest thing is not losing a step, you get dinged up throughout the season and just making sure you’re out there and taking care of your body and going through the right precautions. Everyone is going out each week and getting better and when you’re not out there you just have to take those mental reps so when you come back out there you didn’t lose a step.”

On Syracuse:

“They just shutout Wake Forest, who played us well. Wake has a good offense and Syracuse’s defense is physical. They’re big upfront. They play a lot of different coverages, but they’ve given up points. That’s the biggest thing, they give up some big plays, but we just have to go out there and execute, make sure we’re all on the same page.”

Wide Receiver Nigel King

On what to expect on Saturday:

“Syracuse played a good game last week against Wake Forest. They came out strong, they played them strong and that’s what you have to do to beat good teams, never underestimate a team.”

On preparation during the bye week:

“Just rested our legs and focused on watching film is the main thing, getting to know our opponent and understand what they do as far as their defense.”

On the wide receivers preparation this week:

“Catching the ball, making the big play when it comes to us. I feel like we missed a lot of opportunities for big plays last game. Just focusing on catching the ball and making the play that comes to us.”

Defensive Lineman Zeke Riser

On defending Syracuse’s offense:

“They’ve had their good weeks and bad weeks. They won last week, put up 13 points but they still won. We have to focus on stopping the run; they’re a big run team. Once we do that we feel pretty good about our chances.”

On the timing of the bye week:

“When I first came here I saw three four-week seasons. I didn’t know how it was going to play out exactly, going from 4-0 to 1-3. I don’t think this bye week could come at a better time, kind of get us rejuvenated especially with all the injuries we’ve had. It definitely gave us a much needed break.”

On how he spent the bye week:

“Relaxing, I tried not to do as much physical activity as possible other than what they told us to do. It was a lot of film work, a lot of studying, but I tried not to be here. I tried to be home with my iPad, watching film.”

Defensive Back A.J. Hendy

On resting up during the bye week:

“That’s the best part about the bye week, getting your body back, get your legs back. It’s good to have a week off and get back together.”

On regaining confidence after generating turnovers against Clemson:

“Clemson wasn’t really a confidence booster because we didn’t win the game; we didn’t do enough on defense. Definitely from a turnover standpoint, we can continue to do those types of plays.”

On the state of the defense:

“I don’t think we’ve peaked yet, we’re still getting better. I feel like we can do the same things that we were doing the first four weeks of the season so we’re still rising and getting better.”